4/27/2010

Hey everyone!!

thank you all for your awesome emails... i loved them all! i miss you all very much and you are all in my thoughts and prayers constantly. this week, im feeling alot better and i feel like my body is finally getting used to uruguayan life... FINALLY!! its been pretty nice not being sick.

On saturday we had my very first baptism! hno giosa got baptized... it was thee coolest thing! we really wanted to make his day very special and so we made really nice programs and had refreshments and everything. he was so happy and i feel very blessed to be even a small part in helping him become a member of the true church of christ. he`s a great man and is going to make one heck of a leader. it took time for him to be sure of the gospel. he was very unsure at first but every time we visited him he seemed to accept what we had to say more and more :) I LOVE BAPTISMS!!

this week we worked alot with our investigators that we already had. we have alot right now! on tuesday morning we had a cita with maria noel and i dont know if ive told you this but she speaks english, and it is so nice to be able to actually teach her. we have been a little worried that she might not be living the law of chastity because she has a had a boyfriend for i think 3 years and so we taught her pretty strongly the law of chastity lesson. she responded really well and said that she was ready and pretty much already living it. it was a big sigh of relief for us. she is awesome! you really can see the light of the lord coming from her. she is going to make an amazing missionary. on wednsday we got to travel an hour from paysandu with the sosa family to get their wedding date! theyre getting married! and their wedding is this friday! AND they are all 3 getting baptized this saturday! this family is awesome. juan loves to talk and has known about the church for a while but it wasnt until hna ung and hna roach found them right before i got here that he got interested again. well he has come to church 7 times and he wanted to get baptized but he wasnt married. his wife gabriela is one of those people that follow through on their promises. she didnt want anything to do with the church at first but slowly she started listening and then she started coming to church. before she didnt want to get married but then after she started listening more she became more and more interested! yay! and now shes getting married and baptized. shes really cool! they have 3 kids.. rocio is 10 and she is very smart and has decided to be baptized even though most of her friends go to the catholic church and wanted her to come with them still, and then theres valentina who´s a little terror haha but sweet when she wants to be and walter who´s 1 who is a terror as well haha. they are a really good family. so when we went with them to get their date for their wedding they brought friends to be witnesses. there was a young girl whos friends with rocio and she really wanted to learn more about the gospel, so by the end of the day we gave her a book of mormon and set up an appointment to teach her and her mom more :) it was really cool! its so much easier to find people to teach through the people we already know. also, estela the lady that we met on my first day who is just super amazing brought her husband hector to church on sunday. we went to visit her this week and this time she had her grand daughter listen to us. her grand daughter loved the message and now she and hector have baptismal dates. we saw them today to go over the baptismal questions and estela was glowing and hector was really excited too. we havent worked alot with him but he already has a strong testimony of the church. i absolutely love that family.

WE HAVE 6 BAPTISMS ON SATURDAY AND A WEDDING!!! wooohoooooo!!! we didnt think that we would have that many though. because this last saturday we invited everyone to hno. giosas baptism and we were so sure that they were all going to come but none of them showed up! grrr... it was so frustrating. i was pretty let down! so sunday comes around and norma, estela and maria noel all needed 1 more time at church before they could get baptized. so we decided to go make sure that they would be at church. we stopped by estela first to get her, hector, and camila to come but we were told that they were sick or something by one of the many people that live at their house. we got to the chapel and no one showed. we wanted them all to be there also because hno giosa was being confirmed and the stake president was speaking. well, five minutes to nine and still noone had come. and so we went into room and we prayed. it was amazing what happened next, we walked out of the room and instantly we were met by one of our investigators we didnt think was coming and then the sosa´s came and then we went to sit down and estela and hector walked in! and after them, maria noel! and then during the prayer norma!! hahaha it was a miracle! they ALL came! the lord works miracles everyday, especially here in uruguay! but wow, it totally reaffirmed my testimony of prayer. i sincerely believe the lord listens to our prayers and longs to give us our righteous desires :)

this week is going to be really really crazy! we have the big baptism and a wedding to help plan and get ready and now my poor comp has to have dental work done and so we`re heading to montevideo a day early to get that done and wont be back until thursday morning. im getting tired already! haha but its going to be a really good week! i just really hope that we can get hna ung feeling better :) i dont know how to help and i feel so bad.. but shell be alright. please pray for her and for our investigators that this week will go by smoothly. well this email is super long and i dont know if it all makes sense but theres my life right now!

oh by the way we got a new address for the mission home its

agraciada 2893 #401

montevideo, uruguay 11.600

that means you should all write me now hahaha but seriously :)

i love you all and my next email will have details of calling home on mothers day wich im very excited about.

hermana amy crofts

pictures: 1) baptism of alfredo giosa :) by the bishop

2) us with hno bico our mission leader haha he´s hilarious!

3) us with norma.. shes getting baptized this saturday. she`s very sweet and shy but she loves the gospel

4) the salsa!! haha we´ve made a batch every week! thanks mom! its soooo good

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4/19/10

Hey fam and friends, another week has passed here in paysandú and it was a pretty crazy one. we had quite a bit happen this week. we came back from montevideo on monday. and wednsday we had a zone conference. it was my very first one and we had three other zones come into paysandú. it was awesome! we got to hear from the president and his wife and i got to see hermana gardner, the hermana i traveled from the states with who was my really good friend in the ccm with, and i got to meet alot of the other sisters! it was so fun! there are alot of amazing sisters out here! after the conference they all came over to our apartment and we all chilled and had a good time. im excited because next week we have the hermanas conference, that we only have once a year. haha i really got out into the field at just the right time! its going to be so fun! umm lets see we have been able to work alot with our investigators this week. they all are doing really well and seem to be really excited about the gospel which is so amazing to see. i love all of them so much! almost all of them have baptism dates! and yesterday we had 8 people in church!!! holy cow we almost couldnt believe it! almost all of our investigators were there and stayed for all the meetings. that like never happens! and estelas husband hector who hasnt showed too much interest came and loved it. he comitted to be baptized a week after estela! talk about miracles! another of our investigators, alfredo, who has been a little stuck in his ways is getting baptized this next week! oh its amazing! but maria noel has put her baptism off for another week. she´s a really busy person. oh but guess what we made? we totally made the salsa mom! and it was just like home! it was soooooo goood! mmm! and we made home made tortillas and had a little fiesta.. my comp really liked it! thanks for sending the recipes. ive been kind of training my companion in the mornings haha its been really fun! shes a really good sport.. we`re getting her ready for when she goes home in 4 months. haha lisa, my comp is going to china at the same time that you are.. what part are you going to again? can you explain it a little better? we had a service project on saturday where we cleaned up a school. it was pretty fun but i got pretty sick. i dont know whats been happening but its like my body doesnt want to adjust to life here. its been kind of a struggle but im doing better. the lord is blessing me with strength and its totally something not to be worried about. im being taken care of. well another week done and another week closer to the lord. i love this gospel so much! i love being a missionary! and im so happy i get to be part of these wonderful peoples lives! the gospel is amazing and life really is so much simpler when we focus on what really matters which is the gospel! i encourage everyone to set aside 5 minutes in the day to ponder on the things of the gospel and then share what you find with each other! it really helps you stay focused on what matters. i love you all very very much! until next week :)

love,
hermana crofts

4/12/2010

Hola mi gran familia!!! how are you all? how has the week gone for you? i hope youre all doing your best everyday and remembering how lucky we are to live where we are and have what we have. as for me, im here in montevideo for the day getting some medical stuff done for my visa or something. we left our cozy haha and disfunctional apartment in paysandu at 2 this morning.. sheesh am i ever tired! plus im a bit sickish with sinus stuff haha and my throat, i sound quite like a man. haha but its all good and im still alive :) well lets see, let me first tell you more about my dear trainer hna ung since mom asked about her. she`s absolutely amazing! we get along so very well! i am continually amazed at how much i learn from her everyday. she takes care of me haha and cooks for me too! she made me chinese food the other day and i kind of learned how to eat with chopsticks(its a work in progress). i wanted those recipes so that we could hopefully make some yummy home food and so that i can somehow return the favor to her. she has a really cool conversion story. she was baptized when she was 8 with her brothers but they werent really active in the church. so she was living life not really interested in the church but then she went and studied in spain and she got into the church. one year before she decided to serve a mission she got active and she has so many cool and amazing experiences that i wish i could share with you all but i dont have much time. just know that i absolutely love and respect her and the great decision that she made to bless the people of uruguay with her spirit. her family is seeing the blessings as most of them are coming back to the church and getting active again. its pretty awesome! we have a really fun time as companions. well lets see what else happened this week? we worked really really hard! haha by yesterday we were both so warn out that we crashed.. haha i love knowing that i tried my hardest, it provides really GOOD SLEEP! during p day yesterday, actually right after i emailed you all we went and got our guilty pleasure of ice cream and on our way back to the bus bumped into an investigator that had dropped the missionaries before i got here. she is awesome! her name is maria noel and shes about 24 and she speaks english and just radiates the love of god. so we talked with her and she seemed really excited to see us and asked if we could meet with her and talk about the gospel. we were both ecstatic at the prospect that she might be interested in the gospel again. so we called her later on in the week and found out that her doubt was about tithing. we met with her on saturday and gave her a good lesson on why tithing is important, she totally understood it but she still had one more question... how could she afford to pay to GO ON A MISSION!!! hahaha imagine our great surprise! oh my heck.. it was so awesome! she has now committed to be baptized and to work on preparing to go on a mission. i honestly feel so lucky to be in these great peoples lives and experience these things with them. man, it`s overwhelming! we have continued working with our other investigators and theyre doing well except norma and estela did not come to church yesterday. we were so bummed because that means they cant be baptized on the 24th grr... oh well though we will give them a guilt trip and hopefully theyll come around. the work is going strong here! the lord loves these people and so do i.. haha and i have to admit slowly and slowly im getting to like spanish! haha its so hard though.. i still blush hard core every time i speak. BLAH! haha im working on it though. i love this place, i even love having a toilet that doesnt work and getting bit on the bridge of my nose and getting runs in my nylons. what makes this all possible is our dear savior jesus christ and his amazing sacrifice for us! our heavenly father has provided a way for everyone to be truly happy! how can we not glory in our lord? when all that surrounds us reminds us and speaks of his goodness. wow what a great life it is to be in the service! i miss you all very much! i hope you`re all doing well. i think about you everyday with so much love and fondness. im so thankful to have the amazing examples and support that i have! you will never know how much it means to me :) i love you! ps here are a few pics for you of the first couple weeks. please enjoy! keep sending me your awesome letters and if you see my friends tell them that they HAVE to write me! or else! that goes for sam too... cousin! haha well i again i love you all!

lesquiero muchisimo!

hermana amy crofts

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

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4/05/10

Hi family and friends! how are you all doing? from the emails i recieved it sounds like everyone had a great easter and the kids kept everyone really busy. haha oh how i wished i couldve been there with you all. it was a very different experience for me to not be with the family for conference. but its veen so awesome! i love it here! my trainers name is hermana ung and shes from payson utah and has a really cool story and great desire to serve. she is absolutely awesome and i count myself very lucky to have her as my mom. haha and even though we´re not exactly the same height like 5´2 we have had a lot of fun together here so far. i learn so much from her everyday. she has like 4 months left here on the mission. pretty crazy stuff! im hoping i get another change with her.

but wow! im a real missionary now... haha it hits me at different moments everyday. i keep thinking, is this real? am i really in uruguay teaching the gospel? haha i am! and i love it!! its only been like 5 days here and i cant get enough of it. i feel so very fortunate to be here and in the lords service. we had some great success this week. i came here and they had been working with some good promising investigators so i was really excited. there is a lady named norma who will be getting baptized at the end of april and she actually came to 3 out of the 4 sessions of conference which was amazing. and then the family sosa who we are working on. there are 5 in their family and the dad and his 10 year old daughter are going to get baptized but his wife doesnt have a date yet but we are sure shell be baptized the same day as her family. we are working on getting them married. juan likes to talk alot and i dont think he quite understands that i have like no clue whats going on becuase he just keeps talking! hahaha or maybe he does know that. something really awesome happened to us on my first day. we were out going to visit one of the less actives and on the way there i waved to this family who was on the side of the road just drinking matte and i felt like hmm i think we might need to talk to them. but i didnt say anything. on the way back we passed by them again and i got that same feeling and then basically we went and talked to them, we taught them the restoration and they were really receptive. the lord guided us to estela, she is an older lady who has such a righteous desire to do the lords will. we taught her the first lesson and then the next day we went back and taught her the plan. she accepted the invitation to baptism and she will be baptized at the end of the month too! i cant believe it! you shoulda seen me right after.. i was so giddy with excitement! im convinced that the lord led us to her because we have been completely obedient, and dilligent in our labors.

other than these amazing things, im still trying to get used to life here. its very different than im used to obviously. and all the spanish has been pretty overwhelming. im having a hard time getting up the nerve to speak and not be scared. its really tough. but my companion helps me so much and step by step my fear will disappear im sure haha or at least i hope! our apartment is so crazy... haha we have a toilet that doesnt flush and our whole bathroom is a shower. we cook our food on a gas burner and we wash our clothes by hand! hahaha wow... it sounds so funny when i say it out loud. im getting used to this though! its not too bad.

conference was absolutely amazing wasnt it? so many talks about teaching and protecting the home! im so glad that they spoke so much about this because i truly think that satan is trying especially hard to tempt us and lead us astray. i want everyone to always try their best to be in an environment that you know the lord would be happy with. live your life to please him and not the world! i love elder hollands talk. he speaks with so much feeling! we got to watch the talks in english thankfully because there are about 18 other english missionaries here. we are the only sisters though. if you didnt get to watch the talks please make sure to read them online! i wish i could!

i love this work. i feel like an instrument in the lords hands! i know that he loves these people so much because i can feel some of that love he has for them. i truly know that he is in all things good. thomas s monson is a prophet of god. joseph smith was a true prophet and saw god and jesus christ! i know that we can live with god and our family forever because christ loves us so much and engraved us on the palms of his hands. he is the sunrise and sunset. he is all! and he lives! i know this without any doubt in my heart or mind! do good! do as he would! love as he loves and live as he lived. i love you all so very much!